Posted on 05/03/2011 12:54:13 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Kind of foolish to pull this in the era of smart phones.... but a UW-Oshkosh prof is caught enflagrante using class time to push for the recall of a state senator and Governor Walker. Would have been nice if someone from the MSM was hounddogging this sort of story, but the release comes from the state GOP:
"A recording released by the Republican Party of Wisconsin exposes Professor Stephen Richards using class time to actively campaign for the recall of State Senator Randy Hopper, encouraging his students to sign recall petitions offered by circulators present in his classroom.
"In the tape, recorded during a criminal justice class,Richards can be heard encouraging a female student to sign the recall petition even though she thinks she lives outside the district, and instructing students to sign using their campus address instead of their parents’ home address. He also tells students to look for petition circulators all around campus and “in the bars.”
“This incredible misuse of power by a person in a position of authority cannot be tolerated,” said Mark Jefferson, Executive Director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin. “Professor Richards used valuable class time to actively campaign to his students, over whom he has influence. The incident goes way past poor judgment - this is egregious professional misconduct.”
"In the recording, Richards openly discusses his involvement in the recall effort, detailing organizational meetings he has attended, and using the term “we” to describe recall organizers. .....
(Excerpt) Read more at 620wtmj.com ...
Conservative students prolly should go out there too, just to get an eyewitness measure of the shenanigans.
Someone needs to file a legal complaint as a student, claiming harm to what would otherwise be an educational experience instead of working for the teacher’s union at the demand of the professor.
I’m sure, of course, that failure to sign won’t impact the student’s grade in the good professor’s class.
Is this even legal? It is harassment. It is blackmail. If a student refuses to sign, do they fail the class? I do not see how this is any different than sexual harassment. And this is funded by tax dollars!
Email the school and ask them why they think it’s OK for an ex-con to advocate their students commit vote fraud.
Tenured professor who served time for dealing drugs and leads a national movement of 3 dozen ex-convicts with advanced degrees.
From your link:
“One day, after he had been incarcerated more than two years, he bashed another man over the head with a metal folding chair for cutting in the cafeteria line.”
I suppose getting a bad grade would be the least of your worries if you didn’t sign the petition. (Sounds like a typical union thug)
It’s not legal. Particularly when he is told by the student that the student lives outside the district, the professor is soliciting election fraud, which (the solicitation alone) is a felony.
Pressuring someone in a subordinate position (a student who has not yet been graded) to sign a political petition may or may not be a crime, but it is obviously a rank abuse of classroom time.
Of course, are the (3? 5?) conservative professors on campus now allowed to exhort their charges to sign recall petitions targeting Democrats? Sauce, goose, gander?
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: [excerpt] A statement from UW-Oshkosh Chancellor Richard Wells said the university respects the principle of academic freedom, but “professor Stephen Richards’ classroom comments of March 7 clearly crossed the line into inappropriate political activity.”
Wells released a timeline that indicates the university’s College of Letters and Science dean met with Richards between March 9 and March 16 to discuss the incident.
Wells’ statement said that Richards and the dean of the university’s College of Letters and Science agreed on “corrective action” by the beginning of April, but did not explain what the corrective action was. Administrators followed up with students who raised concerns about Richards’ comments and were told classroom conditions have improved, according to Wells’ statement.
“Unfortunately, at times, there are isolated incidents, which we fully investigate, and, where appropriate, take corrective action,” Wells said. “We regret that the poor judgment of one person can have a negative impact on an entire university community.” [end excerpt]
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/121176134.html
See Post #13 for statement from UW.
fyi
Well doesn’t that just beat all. Someone up there needs to pressure the DA to issue charges against this guy.
Looking into it I came across a website that lists other vote fraud cases in Wisconsin and their outcome - http://maciverinstitute.com/2010/10/acorn-worker-pleads-guilty-to-vote-fraud/
Here is my favorite from that list:
Stephen Wroblewski – CLOSED
Charge: Providing False Information to Obtain Absentee Ballot (Misdemeanor)
Sentence: $500 fine
Wroblewski obtained an absentee ballot in his late-wife’s name in order to “fulfill her dying wish” to vote for Obama.
The only corrective action that is acceptable is termination.
How can this even be legal?? These are KIDS! They can’t sign petitions - don’t you have to be a certain age to sign. And then, it sounded like they’d be signing more than one petition, which is also not kosher.
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